Jubilee Hills is geared up for a tense and tight battle in the bye-election as the ruling Congress is pulling out all the stops to wrest the seat from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which is also burning the midnight oil to bounce back.
The constituency in the heart of the Telangana capital is witnessing a prestige battle between Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao, who led the campaign for their respective parties.
Though the outcome of the bypoll is not going to directly impact the Congress government, which looks firmly in the saddle with a comfortable majority, the Chief Minister knows that a win for BRS may help it bounce back at the political centre stage after the humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
A defeat for Congress will not only lift the spirits of BRS cadres ahead of local body polls but will also embolden Revanth Reddy's critics within the ruling party.
In this context, it was not surprising that the Chief Minister and his entire Cabinet aggressively campaigned for Congress candidate Naveen Yadav.
Though the bypoll is largely seen as a direct fight between Congress and BRS, the BJP is also making all-out efforts to upset the apple cart of both rivals.
The BJP ran an aggressive campaign led by Union Minister and local MP G. Kishan Reddy with active participation from Union Minister of State Bandi Sanjay Kumar, state BJP president Ramchander Rao, party MPs and MLAs.
The stakes are high for all three major contestants in the bye-election, necessitated by the death of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath of BRS.
BRS has fielded Gopinath's wife, Maganti Sunitha, while BJP has once again fielded Lankala Deepak Reddy, who finished third in the 2023 election.
Confident of retaining the seat, the BRS has called it a referendum on the Congress government's performance.
Claiming that there is a silent wave in favour of BRS, senior party leader T. Harish Rao termed the bye-election an event to decide the future of four crore people of Telangana and not just four lakh voters.
The bye-election is also crucial for the Congress party to strengthen itself in Greater Hyderabad, a region where it drew a blank in the 2023 polls despite wresting power from BRS.
Though a victory in the Secunderabad Cantonment bye-election helped the Congress open its account, the ruling party will be keen to capture the BRS stronghold of Jubilee Hills to strengthen itself ahead of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.
One of the segments of the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, Jubilee Hills, came into existence with the delimitation of constituencies in 2009.
The constituency has taken its name from the posh neighbourhood of Jubilee Hills, home to many celebrities and famous as the hub of Tollywood, but it has many middle-class, weaker section colonies and slums, which lack proper civic amenities.
The Congress party has blamed BRS for "failing" to develop the constituency during its 10-year rule, and the BJP has blamed both Congress and BRS for poor civic amenities, as they have been representing the constituency since its formation.
While the Congress captured the seat in 2009 when it retained power in the then united Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) wrested the seat in 2014.
A few months after his win on the TDP ticket, Maganti Gopinath switched loyalties to TRS (now BRS), which had formed the first government in the newly created Telangana state.
In 2014, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielded its candidate, Naveen Yadav, who lost to Gopinath by only 9,242 votes. Congress had finished third while TRS was a distant fourth.
The AIMIM did not field a candidate in 2018, apparently to help its then-friendly party, TRS, retain the seat.
Gopinath scored his second successive victory, defeating his nearest rival, P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy of the Congress party by 16,004 votes.
In 2023, the Congress party fielded former Indian cricket captain and former MP Mohammed Azharuddin. In what many saw as an attempt to help BRS, the AIMIM had fielded Rashed Farazuddin.
Gopinath of BRS had scored a hat-trick by defeating Azharuddin by a margin of 16,337 votes. BRS candidate secured 80,549 votes while Azharuddin polled 64,212 votes. BJP's L. Deepak Reddy finished third with 25,866 votes. AIMIM’s Farazuddin was fourth with just 7,848 votes.
This time, the Congress party's prospects are bolstered by AIMIM's support.
Asaddudin Owaisi-led AIMIM, which had backed BRS when it was in power for 10 years, warmed up to Congress after it came to power in 2023.
The AIMIM has decided not to contest and announced support to Congress candidate Naveen Yadav, who had contested on the AIMIM ticket in 2014 and finished runner-up.
In 2018, Naveen Yadav contested as an independent and finished a distant third. He joined Congress ahead of the 2023 polls.
The high-voltage campaign for the bypoll also saw a dramatic development, as Mohammad Azharuddin was inducted into the state Cabinet.
This was seen as an attempt to blunt the BRS attack for having no Muslim representation in the Cabinet, though it has been nearly two years since Congress formed the government.
The move was also seen as an attempt to woo Muslims, who constitute about 35 per cent of the four lakh voters.
Terming Azharuddin's induction a desperate move, BRS said the ruling party realised that its "betrayal of people" on the six guarantees and other promises made before the 2023 Assembly elections is going to cost it dearly in the Jubilee Hills bye-election.
The BJP tried to cash in on the Congress attempt to lure Muslim voters. It had even urged the Election Commission not to permit the Cabinet expansion.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy's remark, "If the Congress exists, Muslims exist", also triggered a storm during the campaign, with opposition BRS and several Muslim groups demanding his apology.
The Chief Minister, who campaigned in Muslim-majority areas in the company of local leaders of AIMIM, clarified that his remarks were distorted.
Azharuddin and government advisor Mohammed Ali Shabbir also defended the Chief Minister, saying his comments were meant to highlight the Congress party’s historic association with and affinity for the Muslims.
The BJP leaders came down heavily on the Chief Minister for what they called "Muslim appeasement" and termed the bypoll a fight between the BJP and AIMIM.
Union Minister of State Bandi Sanjay branded Congress a party of Muslims, citing the Chief Minister's comment, "Congress means Muslim. Muslims mean Congress".
He alleged that Congress, along with AIMIM, were trying to turn Telangana into an 'Islamic state'.
The firebrand BJP leader also called on the Hindus to form a single vote-bank to counter Congress, BRS and AIMIM.
Bandi Sanjay also ridiculed the CM for wearing a skull cap for votes. "If a day comes when I must wear a skull cap for votes, I'd rather cut off my head. I'm an unapologetic Hindu," he remarked.
Reacting to Bandi Sanjay's call for Hindus to consolidate as a vote bank, CM Revanth Reddy asked him if the BJP loses bypoll, would he accept that "Hindus are not with the BJP".